Quiet time is vital to ensure proper brain function in children and adults.

“The average American teenager sends or receives 75 text messages a day, though one girl in Sacramento managed to handle an average of 10,000 every 24 hours for a month,” the author Pico Iyer wrote in the Sunday Times. (Wait a minute… when did my niece visit Sacramento?) My sister’s daughter, now at the ripe old age of 14, is a perfect specimen for analyzing the Google generation. She can text in her pocket, using only one hand, and she claims that she can text, watch TV and hold a conversation all at the same time. My 6-year-old loves playing with her teenage cousin but always laments the fact that she has to compete with a phone for attention.

“Since luxury, as any economist will tell you, is a function of scarcity, the children of tomorrow,” Iyer postulates, “will crave nothing more than freedom, if only for a short while, from all the blinking machines, streaming videos and scrolling headlines that leave them feeling empty and too full all at once.” Continue reading »

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Did you just kind of flinch a little bit at the very thought of a bygone gym teacher? You’re not alone. A new study by University of Alberta researcher Billy Strean on people’s feelings about gym class found that almost everyone has horrible, horrible memories thereof.

Unsurprisingly, classic gym class activities like rope climbing, dodgeball or repetitive basketball drills actually discourage kids from athletics. Strean’s study found 70 percent of kids in Canada drop out of sports.

He advocates very loosely organized games where kids can simply let go and play, the way they are hardwired to do. Continue reading »

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Yoga for grownups — women especially –has become so widespread as to almost be a cliche. Say the name Rodney Yee to just about any middle class woman and watch the response. And I’d be willing to bet many of us have taught our kids a few poses or had them hang out with us while we do our routine (which in my house always devolves into giggles, as I see a little face peer quizzically up at me during a downward dog or feel a cat attack my feet during what is supposed to be relaxation pose).

More and more studios and schools are offering yoga classes to kids. While some are pretty simple, others boast teachers certified by commercial programs and whole curricula built around yoga. Continue reading »

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If you were one of the parents who went racing around for a new BPA-free alternative after the big Sigg announcement this summer, sit down. We’ve got another one for you – and this is a doozy.

Z Recommends – who initially broke the story of how bogus Sigg’s BPA-free claims were – has a new story of water bottles gone bad that makes Sigg’s look like they’re candy coated. Continue reading »

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